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Forester Fishing Watch (PAS400B-5V)

Product Manufacturer: Casio

(From Amazon.com) The Casio Forester moon phase fishing watch is the perfect timepiece for avid anglers, with a stylish design well suited for both land and sea wear. In addition to the automatic time, day, month and date displays, this convenient digital watch also indicates the best times to fish based on the moon's phase, latitude and longitude. The watch displays the moon's age, phase and time, as well as sunrise and sunset information, for the current or designated day. A handy vibration alert can be used with the daily alarm, hourly time signal, or fishing timer so as not to disturb the quiet on the water. The watch also offers a time memo, a 1/100 second stopwatch, and five daily alarm settings. An automatic electro-luminescent backlight with afterglow makes the display easy to read at any time, and the water-ready nylon band comes with a buckle clasp. The case is made from durable polyurethane resin, the bezel is resin and the watch is water resistant up to 330 feet (100 meters). This watch is backed by a 1-year limited manufacturer's warranty and offers a battery life of approximately five years.

I bought the first version of this when it was released around 8 years back and have purchased all of it's successors. The model I'm reviewing has lasted me 4 years now on the original battery. It's an impressive watch for the money. Has all of the usual wristwatch features (multiple alarms, stopwatch, etc), plus vibrating alarms/alerts and wrist-activated backlighting (VERY handy)

The solunar features are pretty da_n good in my opinion. Moon phase is indicated right on the front face and you can tell whether the moon's waxing or waning. The duration of remaining daylight or night is indicated visually around the edge of the watch face. Probability of fish activity is also indicated on the main screen

On another screen it cycles through the four best fishing times for the following 24 hours. These are determined by the moon's phase and position relative to the coordinates you set (Directly above your postion, below your position, to the east of the earth at your postion, and again to the west). Probablitiy of fish activity at these times is indicated with, well, a number of fish (from 0-4). You can tell the watch to alert you when solunar activity is high. You can also move the date into the future or the past to check solunar activity for any particular date.

Another screen is entirely devoted to sunrise/sunset times. Similarly, you can advance the date to see rise and set times for other days.

The &quot;Fish Memo&quot; feature lets you record the time, date, and solunar information into several consecutive memory slots at the touch of a button. This is very helpful if you're on the fish and you want to record exactly what time each was caught, how many you caught, and what the solunar conditions were. It's also handy for a myriad of other more &quot;real-life&quot; situations where you need to remember exactly when something happened.

Timekeeping is extremely accurate and once you get a feel for it, all of the features are easy to use. Initial setup can be tricky, you need to know the lat/long of the area you're going to primarly fish for accurate information. But once it's set up, you're good to go.

There is a classier analogue model that will provide limited solunar information, but it's virtually worthless for anything other than timekeeping. While it has some features of this model, the backlighting is terrible and the digital portion of the face (solunar information) is difficult at best to read. It's nice if you just want to feel connected to your sport when a digital watch isn't appropriate.

The hunting and fishing versions are identical with the exception of the indicators for activity. The hunting version shows tiny claws, and the fishing version shows fish. Otherwise, they're the same watch with the same solunar calculations.

The only thing that's not so great about this watch is the band - You're stuck with it and if it breaks you're basically out of luck. Even so, the watch is a wholloping $31 through Amazon so I'm not docking a point for the lack of replaceable bands.